TBS, FOX sign new deals with Major League Baseball

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig announced a new TV deal with FOX and Turner that will change the baseball-watching habits of America. The big news? The first round Division Series will be broadcast exclusively on cable (except, I would imagine, in the local markets of the teams involved), starting next year.

In 2007, TBS will broadcast that first-round exclusively, and will have a Sunday-night package starting in 2008. This means they will start cutting back on their broadcasts of Braves games, which they've been doing since it was over-the-air Atlanta station WTBS. FOX will retain the rights to the Saturday Games of the Week, the World Series, the All-Star Game, and one League Championship Series per year; the other LCS is now up for grabs. Both contracts run through 2013.

Additionally, TBS has the rights to any tie-breaking playoff games this year. So if, for example, the White Sox and the Tigers tie for the AL Central lead and need to play a one-game playoff, TBS will have the game.

So, where does this leave ESPN? The article here doesn't say, but it might just leave them in the lurch after 17 years of broadcasting Sunday night games, and, recently, first-round playoff games.